Soviet Log 80
Deja Villa Another Block 6, another sleepless night. Everybody was busy working on their various Armor, Exo-System and Construct Miniaturization Projects in advance of this evening's formal party, Rocquette in her 8th Floor Hotel Room, Kat in her alternate identity double-bluff secret room on a lower storey, and Eva on the Bus out in the parking lot. Things were progressing well, until Kat noticed that the air in her hotel room had definitely been poisoned, and that she was enjoying -12 to Strike, Defend and DF Checks. Starting to cough and sneeze, she blocked the vents, opened the window and finished her training (“block 4 of 5 - no fucking way I‘m bailing now”). At the end of the block she put on her armour and left the room but noticed the hall was suspiciously shrouded in darkness so she ‘noped’ back into her room. As she left the room she noticed that someone was breaking into her room! Determining that discretion was the better part of valor, (especially given her stricken status), she bailed out through the window with her Arachnimotion action. She tried to contact the other PCs with her telepathy amulet, but could only reach Roc and Eva. As it turned out, Rocquette's room was on the same side of the building as Kat's, so when Roc opened the window to look out in response to Kat's transmission they were able to link up. Unfortunately, Roc's horrific premonitions of being forced to fight without her Exo were coming true, (as she was busy working on hers, and it takes 12 Rounds to don one in combat), whiled Kat was rapidly perused (and pursued) by what was left of those so-last tier, (except surprisingly next tier), Nazi mercenary twins who had gone down with the Airship in Moscow, and who's names we could not be bothered to remember. The bionic sister appeared to have grafted the head of her mystically inclined sister onto her neck, using her for extra Actions! We all appreciated the broken munchkiness of this approach with a polite golf clap and an Arbiter Photo-Shop Benny, then they hit Kat with a Synaptic Overload that left her a -22 to Strike, Defend, and DF or something fucktarded with the sleep deprivation factored in, and fired a volley of rockets into Roc's hotel room. Kat and Roc were launched flaming from the window, Roc passing Eva flying up from below as she plummeted down a couple of storeys before the max altitude of her Hover-Jets kicked in. Given that it was now broad daylight, Kat arachnimotioned back into the hotel room (“let’s gank her in privacy”), with the Frankenstein's Sisters relentlessly following her back in. Eva deployed her Scarlet-Bot and started laying down beats with the People's Rod, while Roc smashed through a window 2 floors down and started a long trip out the door, down the hall, up the stairs, (2 flights), down the hall, and back into her room just in time to get a taste of the Synaptic Overload. All of Mei's buffs to Save were dearly missed! Fortunately, Eva made the Save a crucial time, and was able to contribute to the fight, as Roc and Kat were almost totally incapacitated and/or generally useless at this point, and Kat was soon pummeled into submission, taking major Bleed as well. Roc also enjoyed the visit from Aunt Flow, and was one hit away from going down, (armor is for pussies!), but managed to get off a combat doctoring on both of them, bringing Kat back up and saving them from bleeding out just in time for Eva to finish off the twins with a reckless burst into the melee. Roc made sure of her/their vitals, then Eva stuffed the corpse into one of her gaping orifices. We turned invisible, then Kat scampered back to her proper room, (yes Mei got her Beauty Sleep), Eva and Roc returned to the Bus, and we all got cleaned up and back into disguise, then emerged curious about the source of the explosion, and, incensed at the destruction of our room, checked out of the premises. Rocquette was glad that it turned out that Kat hadn't killed the Maid at least, hopefully she's feeling better today? We briefly discussed abandoning our 'hiding in plain sight' routine, (since it obviously wasn't fooling anybody), and actually going to ground, but quickly decided to instead double-down on our Hot Acrobats without Borders personae and checked-in to the other Best Hotel in the city, (loudly complaining about the first one on the way in). Block 2 past uneventfully as we settled in to our new digs, Roc completing as much of her Exo-ASM Project as she could afford, Eva taking some quality bath time with Lisolette, and Kat being tended to by "Dr." Giocomo. Unfortunately, Kat failed a series of Body Saves, and was soon literally on her death bed due to the insidious bio-weapon she had been exposed to. Muttering something under her breath about "Party Blocks", Rockquette, ("Yes I need the Nazi-Serpent Scalpel for this"), moved in to assist in Block 3 and was able to effect a miraculous recovery just in time for the party. Everybody stashed their goodies and honed their primps, then we had the NPCs drive us in the Bus back over to the first hotel again to meet up with Victor and Hugo, the Harpsichordist and the Conductor. They were suitably impressed with our amazing Hot-Acrobats in Milanese High-Fashion Gownsness, then we proceeded in a town-car to the Villa of Lady Duvar. The Villa itself seemed some how eerily familiar, but nobody could quite place their finger on it. The Orchestrarians introduced us to the hostess, who greeted us graciously and made no fuss about the number of dates they had brought, and ushered us into the lavishly appointed home. Inside there were a large number of serving staff, (including some blonde girls that caught Rocquette's attention), but not that many guests, as despite our threats of being fashionably late, we were apparently not that fashionably late? We did see a cluster of gentlemen in suits however, (some Italians and what appeared to be an Englishman?), as well as a high-society looking lady and a Dr Gaspari, (who nobody bothered following up on). Kat pumped our dates for info on the other guests, while Eva went to make small talk with socialite Elena Toletta, (and also pump her for info about the other group). Roc kind of stood awkwardly, trying to look aloof and attract them over, to no success. Mei, in NPC mode, was treated like a minority. Elena Toletta told Eva, (and Kat also determined from our dates), that the Group was none other than Rudolfo Graziani, (the Artifact Fence), and his Boss Don Bellagio! The third Italian was Carlo Cavili, (manager at a certain bank we once never robbed personally), and the Englishman was Robert Huddersfield, also some type of financier. Roc later commented that these guys seemed exactly like who you would want to talk to if you were in the market for a Borsenkrach? Soon other guests began to arrive, including a smooth talking Italian Military officer named Marco Bresciano. He immediately noticed Kat's Hot-Acrobat in Milanese High-Fashion Gownness, and moved in to start hitting on her. She coyly resisted his advances while digging for information about the Italian military, but when the conversation turned to how many different ways he knew to kill someone without a weapon she deftly peeled him off on Roc, (who was in the middle of hitting on one of the blonde waitresses). She also coyly resisted his advances, until everyone was distracted by the dramatic arrival of all of the supermodels. First one sportscar roared to a halt in front of the villa, framing the dramatic entrance of Natalia Valeeva (Elite modeling agency)and her date Christian Vieri, but then they were upstaged by the even more dramatic arrival of Florent Malaua (Boom modelling ace), and Claudio Marchiso, who skidded to a halt in an even fancier sports car, right between them and the house!. Kat was of course immediately entranced, and moved in to see about arranging a 5-way, (6-way with her and Giocomo?). Roc took advantage of the distraction to disenMarco herself, and, having re-positioned herself for just this purpose, turned around and found herself right with the group of organized criminals. With an exasperated look back at the wannabe Italian playboy officer she brashly noted that none of them were that guy over there, drawing a wry chuckle from the group, who couldn't help but notice her Hot-Acrobat in Milanese High-Fashion Gownness. They introduced themselves, and Roc gave them the story about the multi-national all girl acrobat/contortionist squad. She tried to wave the rest of the group over to meet her new friends, but they were all to busy to pay attention to her, Kat still all over the supermodels, Mei still in NPC land, and Eva now distracted by the arrival of our Italian alter-egos in an even louder, more elaborate Lamborghini sports coupe. Soon she and Afredo were talking engines and torque ratios, while Gio looked decidedly uncomfortable among all of the Capitalists and Fascist Enablers. Eva moved over to talk to Rudolpho and the bankers, introduced herself as Isolde and implied that she was a smuggler for hire. Rudolpho seemed interested in doing business and said something about making arrangements later. Robert Huddersfield just chuckled and looked disinterested, and Carlo looked decidedly uncomfortable. Eva thought their might be something there so she doubled down on him and pushed a little harder prompting a persuasion check which failed, followed by an abysmal Beguile. Roc meanwmile stuck with the Don, promising him a "Special Private Group Show" with all of the girls, (and got his handler's contact info to make it happen). That's where we called it. Rewards 11 Generic 1 Combat Roq 3 Random points and 1 Benny Kat 1 Benny You also found on the two headed Kasatonov twins 1 dose of L12 airborne neurotoxin. It requires 120 minutes of exposure to be effective and is DNA coded, but could be recoded to a different DNA. Category:Soviet